Liberal Democratic Party (Kenya)

The Liberal Democratic Party was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

. In the general election held on 27 December 2002, the party was a partner in the National Rainbow Coalition, which won 56.1% of the popular vote and 125 out of 212 elected seats. The party itself took 59 of these seats. In the presidential election held on the same day, the party supported Mwai Kibaki, who won 62.2% of the vote and was elected. Before 2002 the party had been an insignifanct splinter group which was joined by a large number of former KANU members after the nomination of

Uhuru Kenyatta Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born 26 October 1961) is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. Kenyatta was chosen by Daniel Arap Moi as his preferred successor, but Kenyatta was defeated by opposition le ...

to be KANU's presidential candidate. Members of the former National Democratic Party NDP of

Raila Odinga Raila Amolo Odinga (born 7 January 1945) is a Kenyan politician, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata and businessman who served as the Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013. He is assumed to be the Leader of Opposition in Kenya sin ...

which had joined KANU only in summer 2001 left the then ruling party together with KANU politicians who were opposed to what they perceived as imposition of Kenyatta as candidate by the then president Moi. After leaving KANU, they did not take the risk of attempting to register a new party under a government controlled by Moi but instead opted to join the existing LDP which offered them a space. LDP then teamed up with the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) of Mwai Kibaki to form NARC which won the 2003 election with Kibaki as its presidential candidate. Tensions developed soon as Kibaki did not honour a memorandum of understandíng signed between the partners in NARC and which envisaged a share of 50% of cabinet posts for LDP plus a new constitution which would curtail the power of the president and create the post of a prime minister which was to go to Odinga. After the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2005 LPD left the NARC-government. Instead, LDP and KANU formed a coalition known as ''

Orange Democratic Movement The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is a centre-left political party in Kenya. It is the successor of a grassroots people's movement which was formed during the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum campaign. This movement separated in Augu ...

'', later registered as a political party, ''ODM-Kenya''. KANU later left the coalition only to join Party of National Unity, a new coalition led by President Mwai Kibaki. Consequently, some KANU politicians including

William Ruto William Kipchirchir Samoei Arap Ruto (born 21 December 1966) is a Kenyan politician who is serving as the fifth and current president of Kenya since 13 September 2022. Prior to becoming president, he served as the 11th deputy president of Ken ...

and

Musalia Mudavadi Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi (born 21 September 1960) is a Kenyan politician and land economist who is currently serving as the Prime Cabinet Secretary of Kenya. Until October 2022, he was also the party leader of the Amani National Congress (ANC ...

left KANU to stay with ODM-Kenya. ODM-Kenya, on the other hand, split into two parties,

(ODM) and ODM-Kenya. The former is led by Raila Odinga and the latter by Kalonzo Musyoka. Thus LDP did not participate the 2007 general elections as most of its members had either joined ODM, while some joined ODM-Kenya. Following the enforcing of the Political Parties act in December 2008, LDP ceased to be a registered political party. LDP was an observer party at the

Liberal International Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism aroun ...

. {{interlib Defunct political parties in Kenya Liberal parties in Kenya Political parties established in 2002 Defunct liberal political parties 2002 establishments in Kenya